Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Service and teaching

Bonjour, maman
Comment ça va?  Moi, je vais très bien.  Yeah, you totally said that
correctly.  I heard that the new pergola looks good.  I can't wait for
the pictures.  I like the idea of the fireplace, it would be fun to
roast marshmellows with it.  That is great that carli is running so
well.  She is improving so much... It is wierd to think that she is that old
already.  Yeah, you kind of had to tease her haha.
Thanks for the quote.  I think it is so true that we have to always
try and do the best with the time we are given.  Speaking of Young
Womens, this week the young women president asked to help her with her
lesson during the third hour.  So Elder Welch and I sat in on her
lesson.  It was on how can i cultivate a christ-like love.  It was a
pretty good lesson.  It made me think about how you told me that you
had done a similar lesson a few weeks ago. How cool is that that even
though we are on two different parts of the world the lessons are the
same and the apply to everyone.
Answers:
1.  Haven't got any pictures lately????  
  yeah sorry about the pictures.  i keep forgetting my camera at the house.  I'll try to bring it next time. 
2. got an email about the problems in benin with sending packages, so I'm going to send a large envelope instead of a box, any requests for you last african xmas?  Yes, I need to send it soon so that you will get it, crazy! 
i don't know.  i would like maybe a note from the family i think that would be great. 
 4.  Tell us about a great teaching moment this week...Well, this week i thought a lesson that was pretty intresting was one we had on tuesday.  We have been teaching a family and just recently a few of the neighboors have been assisting too. Usually the 
husband translates for the others because they don't speak much
french.  When we showed up, the husband was there.  He had got called
into work, so that left us with the three women who didn't speak  a
ton of french.  But they really wanted to do the lesson nevertheless.
so i was kind of worried how they were going to understand one
another.  So as we started we tried to be as clear as possible.  The
miraclesously they totally understood us.  I thought that was pretty
amazing.  They even we're able to answer our questions.  I thought
that was pretty amazing.
 5.  Do you teach gospel essentials on sunday? 
So, gospel essentials is a pretty full class.  Usually we have
around 30 or so people who come.  This week happened to be my turn to
teach.  So i taught about christ church in the past.  We happened to
have a lot of people there.  It also helped that the second conseulor
in the branch presidency translated for me in Fon.  Because at the end
he bore his testimony about how he knew the church of christ is
restored again on the earth.  That really invited the spirit into the
lesson.
6.  What did you do today for pday? 

Well today p-day was pretty boring.  I was my clothes.  I had a
ton of laundry to do.  Also we cleaned the apartement.  Then we went
out to eat at the cafertria of a recent convert.  So not a ton of
exciting stuff.  We are hoping to go to Ganvié soon.  It is the city
which was built on a lake.  That should be pretty exciting. 
7.  My lesson next week is on service, any missionary stories that I could use?  Do you do service for member/non members there? 
That is really funny because this week we have had a bunch of
service activities.  Often times we help people clean or cook.
Especially cooking.  Even someone told me the sauce i made was
delicous although, all i did was follow the mom's instrucions. haha.
Service helps a lot because it lets people see that we just normal
people who are here to serve.  Also the other day my campanion and i
worked at a corn mill(i think that is what you call a moulin à maïs.)
One of our amis owns one, so she let us work there.  My campanion ran
the mill while i was incharge of cooling the corn by turning in with a
bowl.  It was a ton of fun.
Well, i love you a ton too. Even more than all the pie in the world
Elder Corey Kimzey

Hey dad,
Things are going great here, how are things over there?  The branch is
progressing really well.  We had 3 baptism in our branch this week and i
think at the end of the month we have like 6 or 7 more.  Also we are really
excited that district conference is coming up this week so maybe we can get
more melchizedick priesthood holders.  It will be nice because i think we be
able to an Elder Quorum presidency, sunday school presidency, etc.  But we
actually don't live that close to the branch.  We live at Atrokpocodji near
Cocotomey while the branch is a good 6 to 7 kilometers away at Cococodji. So
they have been thinking about maybe creating a group closer to us.  Which
would be super nice.
congrats on finishing the pergola.  Was it just you, mom, and carli who did
it?
That is too bad that those missionaries died. Lately, sister weed has really
been stressing safety.  So i'll make sure to stay safe.
Thanks for the scripture dad.  I definetly keep working hard so that you can
live haha.  I like that scripture because it is kind of a direct promise if
you work hard , God will forgive you.
Also by the way, i got the email about the line of autority.  Thank you for
that.  Also early i had sent an email to the church asking for it. They
didn't have it complete.  They had though that you were ordained April
25,2004.  Thanks, i think i'll probably print it off so that i can have a
copy with me at all times.
It sounds like football is getting pretty intense.  Who is number one right
now?  I can't believe that Kyte can already go on a mission.  He seems so
young.  How is his brother and sister doing in Japan?
Wow, i can't believe Nick is back already.  I remeber when he left.
That is definetly wierd to think about.  That is so great that the Sawtelles
did so well on family feud.  That is crazy.  Lately, i have some intresting question that my
investigators have been asking.  For instance, one of our amis asked if God
forgave David and if David went to heaven?  It was our first visit with this
ami, so we just told him that we would look more into it and try to answer
it the next time.
Although, i found some intresting things in DCs about it. And also in the
translation of the Bible by Joseph Smith.  It is a kind of hard to example
that to an new investigator but maybe we will try to help him understand at
a basic level.  But this week i had been studying a lot in Preach my gospel
Chapter 13.  I was trying to come up with some ideas, so that our branch
could keep progressing.  I have always liked the part by President Hinckly
where he talks about the thing a convert needs.  Also i have always found
intresting the letter he said he recieved where a woman explain how diffcult
it is to be a recent convert.  Being "born in the church" i never had
thought about how hard that would be to adjust to the new vocuablary,
traditions, and etc.  Also it gave me a good idea to do a branch activity
where we watch the restoration or the testaments.  So hopefully we are going
to be doing that soon.
Also speaking of working with the branch, this week we had a ton of
rendez-vous planned on Saturday, so we invited two young men to help us.  So
we did an exchange so that we could visit all the people.
well, lets just say it didn't go exactly as planned haha.  Every single
rendez-vous we had planned fell through.  But it did get an occacison to
talk to the young man about serving a mission.  He is 18ish and has only
been baptized for 6 or 7 months but already has a huge desire to serve a
mission.  It was pretty fun to talk to him about how great a mission is and
to share some advice and experiences.
It made me realize just how awesome my mission is.  But luckily the last
rendez-vous was there.  We were talking about the priesthood with one of our
amis who is going to be baptized soon and her friend.  Her friend didn't
really want to accept the fact that all the churches don't have the autority
of the priesthood.  But then our ami said something that i felt was pretty
deep.  She said something along the line of that the reason she(her friend)
couldn't believe that the priesthood was in the church was because her
friend had never been to church.  She then said if her friend had been to
church she would've seen the priesthood in action and she would know that it
was true.
That really made me think about how we really need to make sure that all we
do reflects that the priesthood has been restored.
Well dad, i love you a lot.  Thanks for always been there for me. 
 I love you and think you are the best dad.Elder Corey Kimzey 

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